Cox's apples

We can thank a retired brewer and horticulturalist, Richard Cox, for the famous Cox’s Orange Pippin, by common acclaim one of the best dessert apples in the world. He raised the tree from a pip in his Berkshire garden in 1825. Queen Victoria’s gardener championed the Cox in the 1850s and it has never looked back. The variety has an orange-red skin and a distinctive sweet flavour, and is reputed to be the only apple that you can shake and hear the seeds rattle – give it a try! The family has since expanded to include the Crimson Cox, the Queen Cox and the King Cox. There may be more than 2000 apple varieties in the UK, but the Cox is still the undisputed champion – around 82 million Cox’s are picked in Britain every year.